Indie Mathrock From Japan: Zazen Boys

The Zazen Boys are a crazy Japanese indie rock band formed by former Number Girl guitarist and vocalist Mukai Shutoku. Number Girl, which disbanded in 2002, is considered to this day to be one of the most influential bands of the Japanese indie rock scene, and Shutoku has continued to evolve the characteristic rock electro/dance in Zazen Boys.

The band makes great use of punctuated breaks in their rhythmic composition, often complicating to the point where the music becomes comical. I think they are just as adept at making people laugh as they are excellent musicians. Here’s a selection of our favorite videos: Continue reading...

Read More...

Summary only...

EU Rejects Three Strikes Law, Obama Wants To Stop BitTorrent Sites

The European Parliament has, for the fifth time this year, voted against the “three strikes” law, and this time it’s for good. Earlier today, members of Parliament voted to retain amendment (138/46), which states that restrictions to the fundamental rights and freedoms of Internet users can only be put in place after a decision by judicial authorities. The vote was a landslide: 407 in favor and only 57 against.

However, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) recently released the yearly Special 301 Report that added Canada and Spain to the list of countries that fail to protect intellectual property. Downloading torrents for personal use is perfectly legal in Spain, and though the EU has voted to essentially protect file sharers’ rights, the United States says that 2 billion tracks were downloaded in Spain in 2008, which is causing the USTR to push for more severe legislation. Continue reading...

Read More...

Summary only...

Guitar Hero: Van Halen, Guitar Hero 5, Band Hero, DJ Hero Set For Release This Fall

Activision Blizzard is releasing a total of four new music-based video games later this year. We had already guessed that DJ Hero, Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero were on their way, but now the company has also confirmed the existence of Guitar Hero: Van Halen to videogame blog Joystiq.

Guitar Hero: Van Halen will feature some of Van Halen’s greatest hits as well as music from Queen, Weezer, Blink-182, The Offspring and Queens of the Stone Age. Also, the first screens of the DJ Hero peripheral have been revealed. It’s a turntable controller, with three buttons to press while spinning a “record”, check out the photos after the cut: Read more...

Read More...

Summary only...

Music Affects Your Judgment Of Facial Expressions

A recent research project led by Dr Joydeep Bhattacharya from the University of London showed that by listening to music, the way we judge facial expressions is “enhanced”. Even though you might think that music only deals with hearing, it seems when we listen to music, our perception of emotion is somehow manipulated on a subconscious level.

Volunteers listened to 15 seconds of music, and then gauged the emotions of a face. The research found that listening to happy or sad music made people distinguish more happiness or sadness in a face. Even more eerie: this music-induced effect occurred even when there wasn’t any emotion in the faces of the volunteers they were judging. Continue reading...

Read More...

Summary only...

Sony Streams Free Music Videos On PS3 This Summer

Sony announced at SCE Australia that the free music video service for the Playstation 3, called Vidzone, will be launched in June. The service will allow access to a wide range of music videos, as well as live concerts, behind the scenes footage and interviews, all streamed directly to the PS3 free of charge.

Sony boasts that Vidzone will have more than 10,000 tracks at launch, and will update content on a weekly basis. For starters, they have the entire Sony BMG catalog, but executives also say that “thousands of independent labels” will also support the service. Read more...

Read More...

Summary only...

New iTunes Pricing Is Losing Labels Money

Executives within the major labels are confirming decreased sales on iTunes ever since Apple implemented variable pricing on the popular digital music store in April. Digital Music News reports that individual song sales have dropped, resulting in a decline in overall revenue.

The most popular songs on iTunes were set to $1.29, and even though a drop in sales was probably expected, the higher prices were supposed to compensate for that loss. Even worse, the sales slump has for all songs, not just the top tier tracks. One of the industry execs told Digital Music News:

“It’s back to the abacus to figure out the best mix.”

Continue reading...

Read More...

Summary only...

French “Three Strikes” Delayed, Pirate Party in Parliament?

File sharing has received much criticism over the past few months, but it’s also garnering support. This afternoon, the French Assembly postponed voting on the “three-strikes” measure against repeat file sharers until next week, because Socialist deputies have presented amendments that the Assembly must examine.

In the meantime, a survey conducted by the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter found that over five per cent of 1,500 people surveyed said they would support the Swedish Pirate Party. Since the minimum for a seat in European Parliament is four per cent, the party might have a chance in the upcoming elections in June. Continue reading...

Read More...

Summary only...

Trent Reznor Curses Apple For Rejecting NIN iPhone App

The Nine Inch Nails iPhone application update was rejected recently by Apple, purportedly because it contains objectionable content. Front man Trent Reznor posted the rejection email from Apple on the NIN message board, here’s an excerpt:

“Applications must not contain any obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, etc.), or other content or materials that in Apple’s reasonable judgement (sic) may be found objectionable by iPhone or iPod touch users.”

iPhone applications don’t have a rating system like music and movies yet, and it seems that Apple has adopted a strict policy regarding curse words in apps. Reznor was, to say the least, extremely dissatisfied with the decision, and responded angrily: Continue reading...

Read More...

Summary only...

TV Show Rates Singers With Computer Program

A new television program being aired in Portugal called Atreve-te A Cantar (translates “Dare to Sing”), has adopted a new way to evaluate contestants’ singing talent in its karaoke-style game show. The show democratizes the contestant selection process in the same way as “The Price Is Right” by giving a microphone to each of the 100 members of the audience, and having the whole crowd sing a few bars of a pop song. Then, a computer program analyzes each person’s singing, and selects two contestants to battle against each other for up to $33,000.

The technology is called SAM (Musical Analysis System), and gauges how well tuned and in time a singer is. The system doesn’t work very well, and reminded me of video games Singstar and Karaoke Revolution, with the exact same setbacks. Ridiculously, SAM makes very dubious, unfair decisions almost every time. Read more...

Read More...

Summary only...

Top 5 Free Music Sites

Are you having trouble finding free legal music available on the Internet? To help you get the music you want, quickly and without having to jump through legal hoops, we’ve compiled our top five favorite online destinations for your free music needs.

Popular sites like Myspace, Last.fm and Pandora are lagging behind when it comes to innovation in navigating the thousands of bands available online. Our top five sites promise new ways of finding and sharing music, so check out the list below, and tell us what you think: Read more...

Read More...

Summary only...